How to implement a consumption scheme?

Floating Licenses
#1

I want to implement a scheme where the end user gets an allocation of tokens and when they are all consumed the application is prevented from running until more tokens are purchased. I want this to work with floating licenses so that any number of users (ie activations) can consume from the same pool of tokens.

It appears that I should use a meter attribute for the token. Since the application can’t check Gross Uses (at least via LexActivator), Allowed Uses will be the size of the token pool and each activation must stay activated in order for the Total Uses count to properly count up to the max allocation (Allowed Uses).

If this seems correct, the question then is how can we handle deactivations? Deactivating subtracts that activation’s count from the license’s Total Uses. But a user may get a new computer, or may leave the company or department, so deactivation will be necessary. Are we forced to either disallow deactivation or accept the consequences?

#2

Hi Gary,

You can access gross uses from LexActivator (ensure you are using the latest version). And I suppose that solves your problem.

#3

Thank you. I will get the latest and take a look.

#4

It solves my problem only in LexActivator. We intend to use both LexActivator and LexFloatClient, so we need GetHostLicenseMeterAttribute to also return gross uses.

#5

The value of gross uses can be trusted if it is stored on our server. In the case of LexFloatServer, there is no reliable way of storing it locally. Suppose it is stored on disk (encrypted) and the user deletes all local data (or does a re-activation) the value would automatically reset.

#6

This makes sense. Thanks.